Influences of consumer brand relationship quality on word of mouth

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRANNING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY  NGUYỄN VĂN LONG SƠN INFLUENCES OF CONSUMERBRAND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY ON WORD-OF-MOUTH MASTER THESIS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION HO CHI MINH CITY – 2012 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRANNING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY  NGUYỄN VĂN LONG SƠN INFLUENCES OF CONSUMERBRAND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY ON WORD-OF-MOUTH Subject: Master of Business Administrator Code: 60.34.05 MASTER THESIS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr NGUYỄN THỊ MAI TRANG HO CHI MINH CITY – 2012 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Mai Trang for her guidance throughout this research I would like to thank to all respected lecturers of the eMBA19 course of for their devotions in training and education I learn a lot from them I am appreciative of the help from Mr Cao Quốc Việt who spent a lot of time to get side by side with me during the research I also want to thank my classmates for their support I would like to especially thank to all members of my family: my Mom, my wife, and my son for their love and their support, encouragement and assistance with this thesis Ho Chi Minh City, October 2012, Nguyễn Văn Long Sơn ii COMMITMENT I would like to commit that this thesis, “Influences of Consumer-brand relationship quality on Word-of-mouth”, was accomplished based on my independent and serious study and scientific research The data was collected in reality and it has clear origins In addition to that, the data would be trust-worthily handled and it has never been released in any menu Nguyễn Văn Long Sơn TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT CHAPTER INTRODUCTION .2 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Research Objectives 1.3 Research methodology and Research scope 1.4 Significances of the research 1.5 Structure of the research CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Consumer-Brand Relationship and Its Quality 2.2.1 Consumer-Brand Relationship 2.2.2 Consumer-brand relationship quality 2.3 Conceptual model and hypotheses 2.3.1 Six dimensions of consumer-brand relationship 2.3.1.1 Love and Passion 2.3.1.2 Self-connection 2.3.1.3 Commitment 2.3.1.4 Interdependence 10 2.3.1.5 Intimacy 10 2.3.1.6 Trust 11 2.3.2 Word-of-Mouth (WOM) 11 2.3.3 Proposed conceptual model and hypotheses 14 2.4 Summary 15 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16 3.1 Introduction 16 3.2 Research design 16 3.2.1 Research methodology 16 3.2.2 Research process 17 3.3 Measurement scales and questionnaire development 17 3.3.1 Measurement scales 17 3.3 Questionnaire development 20 3.4 Pilot study 21 3.4.1 Qualitative pilot study 21 3.4.2 Quantitative pilot study 22 3.5 Quantitative main study 22 3.5.1 Research sampling 22 3.5.2 Collecting data 23 3.5.3 Methods of data analysis 23 3.5.4 Data cleaning 23 3.5.5 Reliability assessment of measurement scales (Cronbach alpha) 24 3.5.6 Validity assessment of measurement scales (EFA) 24 3.5.7 Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) 24 3.5.8 Correlation Analysis 25 3.5.9 F-test 25 3.6 Summary 26 CHAPTER DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 27 4.1 Introduction 27 4.2 Descriptions of sample 27 4.3 Reliability and validity of the measurement scale 29 4.3.1 Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) 29 4.3.2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 32 4.3.2.1 EFA implementation for independent variables 33 4.3.2.2 EFA implementation for dependent variable 37 4.4 Adjust the research model and the hypotheses 38 4.4.1 The adjusted research model 38 4.4.2 The research hypothesis 39 4.5 Testing the adjusted research model and the hypotheses 39 4.5.1 Testing correlations of constructs 39 4.5.2 Testing residuals of dependent variable 40 4.5.3 Testing research model and hypotheses 41 4.6 Summary 47 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION 49 5.1 Introduction 49 5.2 Findings 49 5.3 Recommendations 49 5.4 Practical implications 50 5.5 Limitation and future research 50 LIST OF REFERENCES .51 APPENDIX THE QUESTIONNAIRES (VIETNAMESE VERSION) .59 The Questionnaire (Used to interview consumers of motorcycles) 59 The Questionnaire (Used to interview users of bank services) 63 APPENDIX CRONBACH’S ALPHA ANALYSIS 67 APPENDIX EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) 71 APPENDIX MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS (MLR) 76 Appendix 4.1: Testing correlation of constructs 76 Appendix 4.2: Testing assumptions for residuals of dependent variable 77 Appendix 4.3: The MLR analysis of with the sample of 267 participants of study on motorcycle and bank services 78 Appendix 4.4: The MLR analysis of with the sample of 135 parcitipations of study on motorcycles 79 Appendix 4.5: The MLR analysis of with the sample of 132 parcitipations of study on bank services 80 LIST OF TABLE Table 2.1 The six dimensions of brand relationship quality suggested by Fournier (1998) Table 3.1 Measurement scales of independent variables 19 Table 3.2 Measurement scales of dependent variable 20 Table 4.1 Frequency Table of Product/Service 27 Table 4.2 Frequency Table of Brand 28 Table 4.3 Statistical report of Demographic variables 29 Table 4.4 Cronbach’s alpha of variables 31 Table 4.5 KMO and Bartlett's Test 33 Table 4.6 Total Variance Explained 34 Table 4.7 Rotated Component Matrix 35 Table 4.8 EFA results of independent variables 36 Table 4.9 EFA results of dependent variable 38 Table 4.10 Correlations 40 Table 4.11 MLR results using Enter technique 41 Table 4.12 ANOVA 42 Table 4.13 MLR variables coefficients 42 Table 4.14 Results of testing the hypotheses 44 Table 4.15 Results of testing H5 46 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 2.1 Proposed conceptual framework 15 Figure 3.1 Research process 18 Figure 4.1 The adjusted research model 38 Figure 4.3 The revised research model 45 ABSTRACT This study seeks to investigate the influences of brand relationship quality on word-of-mouth behavior among consumers in Ho Chi Minh city A model that incorporates dimensions of consumer-brand relationship quality and word-of-mouth was tested with a sample of 267 consumers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam The results showed that to Vietnamese consumers, word-of-mouth would not be influenced by Self-connection while Passion and Trust have very strong influences on Word-of-mouth; Intimacy also has positive influences on Word-ofmouth but weaker By comparison between users of services and consumers of products, Trust plays the most important role on word-of-mouth to users of services while Passion is the most important factor influencing on word-of-mouth to consumers of products These findings suggest that managers should establish high-quality consumer-brand relationships in order to get positive word-of-mouth among consumers This study provides firms with the knowledge needed to more effectively implement relationship-marketing activities As the economy of Vietnam continues to grow, competition intensifies, and to ensure service excellence, firms need to establish strong relationships with their consumers as the quality of the consumerbrand relationship can increase word-of-mouth behavior KEYWORDS: brand relationship quality, word-of-mouth, Ho Chi Minh city CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Branding plays an important role in marketing In advanced economies, both marketing academics and practitioners pay a lot of attentions in branding during the past years (e.g., Aaker, 1991; Aaker, Fournier, & Brasel, 2004; Woodside & Walser, 2007; Yorkston, Nunes, & Matta, 2010) However, little attention has been paid to branding issues in the developing world, especially in countries that have recently transformed their economies from centrally planned economies to market-oriented economies, such as Vietnam (Nguyen and Nguyen, 2011) In Vietnam, the role of branding has only recently become of interest to Vietnamese practitioners in recent years for the urgent of loosing Vietnamese brands to foreigner firms in international market (e.g., the situation of Buon Me Thuoc coffee brand registered by a China-based firm in China, Phu Quoc fish-sauce brand registered by a HongKong-based firm in China, Viet Huong fish-sauce registered by a US-based firm in the US and later in European countries and Australia, …) Before 1986, most Vietnamese firms did not recognize the importance of brands and branding Unbranded practice or the use of a company’s name as a brand name to distinguish one product from others was a common approach From 1986, the introduction of the open-door policy of the Vietnamese government, which led to the entry of multinational enterprises into the market, together with the launching and promoting of international brands by multinational enterprises has shifted Vietnamese consumers’ shopping habits from buying products to buying brands Also, this development has encouraged Vietnamese firms to adopt branding practices, resulting in the launching of several local brands, 17 Tôi nhận mà X hứa cung cấp 18 Kinh nghiệm cho thấy X khơng nói X khơng có 19 Tôi đề nghị người khác sử dụng X sớm tốt 20 Tôi giới thiệu X với người khác X thương hiệu tốt 21 Tôi kể với người khác kinh nghiệm X Xin anh/chị cho biết số thông tin cá nhân sau: 22 Xin vui lịng cho biết giới tính anh/chị:  Nam  Nữ 23 Xin vui lòng cho biết mức thu nhập hàng tháng anh/chị?  Dưới 10 triệu đồng  Từ 10 đến 20 triệu đồng  Trên 20 triệu đồng 24 Xin vui lòng cho biết trình độ học vấn anh/chị?  Dưới đại học  Đại học  Trên Đại học Cám ơn anh/chị tham gia trả lời câu hỏi APPENDIX CRONBACH’S ALPHA ANALYSIS Appendix 2.1: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Love and passion (PS) Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 874 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Total Correlation Alpha if Item Deleted PS1 9.08 6.129 751 828 PS2 9.17 5.659 824 760 PS3 9.08 6.316 701 872 Appendix 2.2: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Self-connection (SC) Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 929 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Total Correlation Alpha if Item Deleted SC1 7.74 8.869 830 917 SC2 7.80 8.115 885 873 SC3 7.84 8.524 851 901 Appendix 2.3: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Commitment (CM) Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 890 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Total Correlation Alpha if Item Deleted CM1 7.65 10.190 698 917 CM2 8.18 8.266 842 793 CM3 7.93 8.671 826 808 Appendix 2.4: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Interdependence (ID) Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 833 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Total Correlation Alpha if Item Deleted ID1 6.54 8.069 570 892 ID2 6.72 7.541 740 724 ID3 6.78 7.160 784 678 Appendix 2.5: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Intimacy (IM) Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 820 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Alpha if Item Deleted Total Correlation IM1 7.81 6.063 696 729 IM2 7.79 6.560 660 767 IM3 7.73 6.312 666 760 Appendix 2.6: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Trust (TR) Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 900 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Total Correlation Alpha if Item Deleted TR1 8.68 6.203 812 848 TR2 8.71 6.529 834 830 TR3 8.70 6.788 761 890 Appendix 2.7: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Word-of-mouth (WOM) Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 830 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Total Correlation Alpha if Item Deleted WOM1 8.97 5.995 663 790 WOM2 8.87 5.380 775 675 WOM3 8.59 6.236 632 819 APPENDIX EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) Appendix 3.1: The EFA of independent variables KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Sphericity 889 3684.900 Approx Chi-Square df 153.000 Sig .000 Component Total Variance Explained Extraction Sums of Squared Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings Loadings Initial Eigenvalues Total % of Cumulative Variance % Total % of Cumulative Variance % Total % of Cumulative Variance % 8.387 46.594 46.594 8.387 46.594 46.594 3.608 20.046 20.046 1.983 11.019 57.613 1.983 11.019 57.613 3.537 19.651 39.697 1.565 8.693 66.306 1.565 8.693 66.306 3.195 17.749 57.446 1.087 6.042 72.348 1.087 6.042 72.348 2.682 14.902 72.348 991 5.507 77.855 879 4.883 82.738 457 2.539 85.278 406 2.258 87.536 386 2.147 89.682 10 348 1.936 91.618 11 299 1.661 93.278 12 278 1.542 94.820 13 186 1.032 95.852 14 178 988 96.840 15 163 906 97.747 16 157 870 98.617 17 129 718 99.335 18 120 665 100.000 Component Total Variance Explained Extraction Sums of Squared Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings Loadings Initial Eigenvalues Total % of Cumulative Variance % Total % of Cumulative Variance % Total % of Cumulative Variance % 8.387 46.594 46.594 8.387 46.594 46.594 3.608 20.046 20.046 1.983 11.019 57.613 1.983 11.019 57.613 3.537 19.651 39.697 1.565 8.693 66.306 1.565 8.693 66.306 3.195 17.749 57.446 1.087 6.042 72.348 1.087 6.042 72.348 2.682 14.902 72.348 991 5.507 77.855 879 4.883 82.738 457 2.539 85.278 406 2.258 87.536 386 2.147 89.682 10 348 1.936 91.618 11 299 1.661 93.278 12 278 1.542 94.820 13 186 1.032 95.852 14 178 988 96.840 15 163 906 97.747 16 157 870 98.617 17 129 718 99.335 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Rotated Component Matrix a Component PS2 820 112 199 242 PS1 802 183 229 121 CM3 663 355 325 214 PS3 631 319 349 CM2 585 444 365 127 CM1 539 333 440 764 324 ID2 132 ID3 718 432 IM2 326 712 238 IM1 342 680 157 IM3 176 648 308 ID1 404 580 401 114 SC2 299 114 861 111 SC1 333 820 116 SC3 280 244 813 129 TR3 104 167 170 862 TR2 204 239 861 TR1 271 256 826 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization a Rotation converged in iterations Appendix 3.2: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Love and passion (PST) consisting observation variables: PS1, PS2, PS3, and CM3 Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 868 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Total Correlation Alpha if Item Deleted PS1 13.03 13.837 748 821 PS2 13.12 13.031 827 789 PS3 13.03 14.191 694 841 CM3 13.67 12.772 640 874 Appendix 3.3: Cronbach’s alpha analysis of factors Intimacy (IMT) consisting observation variables: IM1, IM2, IM3, and ID2 Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 806 Item-Total Statistics Cronbach's Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Corrected ItemItem Deleted Alpha if Item Deleted Total Correlation IM1 11.11 11.912 659 738 IM2 11.09 12.064 692 724 IM3 11.03 12.056 656 740 ID2 11.66 13.029 491 820 Appendix 3.4: KMO and Bartlett's Test of independent variables after remove disqualified variables: CM1, CM2, ID1, ID) and grouped into factors KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx Chi-Square df 874 2510.060 91.000 Sig .000 Appendix 3.5: The EFA of dependent variable Word-of-mouth (WOM) KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx Chi-Square df Sig .679 322.827 3.000 000 Total Variance Explained Compo nent Initial Eigenvalues Total % of Variance Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings Cumulative % 2.241 74.685 74.685 492 16.414 91.099 267 8.901 100.000 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Total 2.241 % of VarianceCumulative % 74.685 74.685 APPENDIX MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS (MLR) Appendix 4.1: Testing correlation of constructs Correlations PS PS Pearson Correlation IM 1.000 ** 503 Sig (2-tailed) N IM SC TR WOM Pearson Correlation ** 605 ** 659 ** 000 000 267.000 267 267 267 267 ** 1.000 503 N 267 ** 496 ** ** 575 000 000 267.000 267 267 267 ** 1.000 ** 605 406 000 000 N 267 267 512 406 000 Sig (2-tailed) ** 496 ** 267 267 ** 1.000 317 000 N 267 267 267 ** 575 ** 475 ** 649 000 267.000 649 ** Sig (2-tailed) 000 000 000 000 N 267 267 267 267 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) ** 475 267.000 000 ** ** 000 000 659 317 000 Sig (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation 512 000 000 Pearson Correlation WOM TR 000 Sig (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation SC 267 1.000 267.000 Appendix 4.2: Testing assumptions for residuals of dependent variable Appendix 4.3: The MLR analysis of with the sample of 267 participants of study on motorcycle and bank services Model Summary Change Statistics Model R R Square 775 a Adjusted R Square 601 Std Error of R Square the Estimate Change F Change 595 74005 601 98.741 df1 df2 Sig F Change 000 262 a Predictors: (Constant), TR, SC, IM, PS ANOVA Model Sum of Squares b df Mean Square Regression 216.314 54.078 Residual 143.492 262 548 Total 359.806 266 a Predictors: (Constant), TR, SC, IM, PS b Dependent Variable: WOM F 98.741 Sig .000 a Coefficients Unstandardized Standardized Coefficients Coefficients Std Error a Collinearity Statistics Correlations Beta t Zeroorder Mod el B Sig Partial Part (Constant) 524 201 2.614 009 PS 315 054 324 5.859 000 659 340 229 497 2.013 IM 207 050 201 4.168 000 575 249 163 655 1.528 SC 068 040 084 1.693 092 475 104 066 619 1.616 TR 334 045 a Dependent Variable: WOM 357 7.444 000 649 418 290 661 1.513 Tolerance VIF Appendix 4.4: The MLR analysis of with the sample of 135 parcitipations of study on motorcycles Coefficients a Unstandardized Standardized Coefficients Mo del B Std Error Coefficients Beta Collinearity Statistics Correlations t Sig Zeroorder Partial Part Tolerance VIF (Constant) 745 296 2.515 013 PS 320 071 350 4.530 000 639 369 263 563 1.776 IM 224 074 211 3.033 003 540 257 176 693 1.443 SC 071 054 091 1.308 193 434 114 076 696 1.437 TR 266 064 302 4.156 000 615 342 241 635 1.574 a Dependent Variable: WOM Appendix 4.5: The MLR analysis of with the sample of 132 parcitipations of study on bank services Coefficients a Unstandardized Standardized Coefficients Mo del B Std Error Coefficients Beta Collinearity Statistics Correlations t Sig Zeroorder Partial Part Tolerance VIF (Constant) 159 283 562 575 PS 276 085 265 3.250 001 686 277 170 413 2.421 IM 195 069 195 2.807 006 605 242 147 572 1.748 SC 050 064 057 779 438 531 069 041 516 1.937 TR 464 071 442 6.499 000 727 500 341 593 1.686 a Dependent Variable: WOM ... the influences of brand relationship quality on word -of- mouth behavior among consumers in Ho Chi Minh city A model that incorporates dimensions of consumer- brand relationship quality and word -of- mouth. .. influence on word -of- mouth - H3: Brand self-connection has a positive influence on word -of- mouth - H4: Brand trust has a positive influence on word -of- mouth - H5: The influences of consumer- brand relationship. .. Introduction 2.2 Consumer- Brand Relationship and Its Quality 2.2.1 Consumer- Brand Relationship 2.2.2 Consumer- brand relationship quality 2.3 Conceptual